Reaching out through a celebration of literature and life
Michael Klein, B.A.’76
Michael Klein, B.A. ’76, his father and his daughter are all UB alumni, and Klein leads a philanthropic charge to help the University improve students’ lives the same way it has done for his family’s. For more than two decades, Klein has supported the M.F.A. Reading Series, which consistently brings to UB a Who’s Who of respected writers and literary leaders, including poets Stephanie Barber and Jehanne Dubrow, author Rick Moody and agent Janet Silver.
“I support the series because it reflects my family’s attitude toward contributing to the community, and when I see the students attending the lectures, that is really important to me,” Klein says.
The evening reading series, an outreach program of the M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts that is free and open to the community, speaks to what Klein sees as an essential aspect of today’s UB and that of the future: serious students living fulfilling lives that are integrated with the bustling city around them. When Klein, a former member of UB’s Alumni Board of Governors, was a student in the early 1970s, the University was a part-time, commuter school. “It’s a totally different school today, and I believe all for the better,” he says.
Klein’s enthusiasm for the University is catching: His grandson may someday attend UB, he says.